MEXICO CITY 
A kidnap victim said Tuesday he was threatened with mutilation and death by a Frenchwoman whose campaign for a prison transfer to her homeland has been aided by France's president.

Ezequiel Elizalde, who was held captive for weeks at a safe house and ranch, challenged claims by Florence Cassez that she knew nothing of the kidnapping allegedly organized by her Mexican boyfriend.

Cassez, serving a 60-year sentence for three kidnappings, has been trying to rally support for a transfer to a French prison, and visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy convinced Mexican officials this week to study the possibility.

The request is controversial in Mexico, where activists and politicians have been demanding tougher sentences to stamp out a wave of kidnappings.

Elizalde told MVS Radio that Cassez should not receive any special treatment: He said that she once told him to decide whether he wanted an ear or a finger cut off. Mexican kidnap gangs sometimes send body parts to relatives to pressure them for ransom payments.

"She never had the heart to feel anything for a victim," he said in an interview with MVS Radio.

Elizalde said he saw Cassez twice during the weeks he was held at a safe house and a ranch outside Mexico City in 2005.

"She was the one who fed me," he said. "She threatened me not to be a hero (and try to escape), that she herself would kill me."

Cassez has acknowledged she lived at the ranch, but said she did not know the victims were kidnapped and her lawyers argue that her conviction was tainted by official misconduct.

The Mexican government has acknowledged that officials faked a televised raid on the ranch to show police rescuing the hostages and detaining Cassez and a Mexican man. The Attorney General's Office now says that Cassez was actually arrested the previous day.

A second victim has also said Cassez was involved. In a television interview taped in 2006 but first aired by local media on Tuesday, kidnap victim Cristina Rios said she recognized Cassez's voice and said she "tortured us, psychologically."

"I think it is unjust that a foreigner comes here, commits crimes, and then they want to make her look innocent," Rios said.

Sarkozy said Monday he is not questioning Cassez's conviction, but is merely trying to help a French citizen return home. He said Cassez told him she wants to return to France to finish serving her sentence.

Elizalde and President Felipe Calderon have expressed concern that France may try to reduce or cancel the sentence if she returns home.

"This cannot go unpunished, and this person be allowed to walk away smiling," Elizalde said. "If she goes back to France, we do not know if they will free her once she gets there."